The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade by William J. Bennett, Jr., Chester E. Finn, Jr., John T.E. Cribb Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Educated Child: A Parents Guide From Preschool Through Eighth Grade
Book Review: Unbaised Review: Buy It. Think About It. Use It.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book helps us parents to make sure our children know what they need to know. This is really an important book for our childen. Use this book as a valuable guide. It really is a great book.America's educational system cannot teach our children everything they need to know. Parents are primarily responsible for teaching our children what is most important in life. YOU need to devote your time and intellect to this goal. Parents are the primary source of learning in our country.
This book tells you what you need to do to supplement your child's learning. Use this book to help you do your job.
One word of warning: There are a few subtle conservative political action requests in this book. I urge you, if you are a moderate or liberal, to not let these very minor suggestions deter you from buying this excellent book. The material is really excellent. And it is true that not all children learn the same.
But what is true is that parents need to be completely involved, and there are some tried-and-true lessons YOU need to teach your children. As a start, help your child to learn as many words as possible by age two, and then foster a rich environment of reading. Read to your child. Buy your child lots of great books. Teach (yes, you) your child to read well before first grade, at least, and make a strong reading start before Kindergarten.
And read this book.
I praise Mr. Bennett and his colleague for putting together an outstanding book grounded in excellent education fundamentals.
I also recommend the excellent book by E. D. Hirsch (editor) called "What You're First Grader Need to know." This series continues through other grades, though I don't know anything about the other ones. Also get the "Dorling Kindersley Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia". And enrich your children's lives with the music of the greatest children's musician of all time, Raffi. Do a search for "Raffi." He's the Mr. Rogers of music. It will pay dividends many times over.
Teach your children.
Book Review: Great guide for parents
Summary: 5 Stars
As a member of a public school board of education, one thing I look for is parental involvement. I like to see large crowds at school board meetings. This book is a valuable guide for parents of children up to 8th grade. Bennett stresses parental involvement. Parents should get to know their childrens' teachers and inquire about the content of the curriculum. Much of the book sets forth what children should learn in each subject area in each grade level. I found the chapter on social studies particularly interesting because that is the subject area where "multiculturalism" and revisionism can most water down the curriculum. Clearly, we should not white wash warts in our past, but we should teach history in a positive manner, while recognizing that no culture, including ours, has a perfect past. We should teach our commonality as citizens without over empahsizing our differences. Parents should know what is being taught in schools and, where children are not being taught what children should know, the parents should be active in correcting the matter.Bennett points out that the home, as well as the school, should be a center of learning. He gives examples of activities that parents can do with children to increase their learning. He also discusses dealing with difficulties that may arise in schools, such as disciplinary problems, etc. This book also discusses innovative and controversial issues such as charter schools, home schooling, how religion should be addressed in our schools, etc. I highly recommend this book and hope that it will spur parents on to close involvemet with their children's education.
Book Review: Miseducation -- Is parental harassment the answer?
Summary: 2 Stars
'Parental involvement' is the core of Bennett et al.'s proposed solution to the problems arising from the neosocialist take-over of education which has focused teachers' attention obsessively on minorities. With a remorseless insistence that only 664 pages can supply, the authors set out a programme of parental activism so daunting that no ambitious parent could complain that the authors' inspiration ever failed. No advice for parents and children is too trite to be abjured by the authors:"Every morning you must send him off to school with a good night's sleep, a decent breakfast and a positive attitude towards learning." "Good penmanship requires discipline. . .we urge you to work on neatness and legibility with your child at home." "Call out vocabulary words, spelling words, or math facts to your child."
Children and their teachers must be constantly monitored, hectored, rewarded and punished - the children by TV-deprivation and school principals by protests and demonstrations from angry parents. Repeatedly, ambitious parents are advised to 'spend a few minutes each day' reading to their child, listening to their child, talking with their child, improving diction, visiting public libraries, mastering computing, going out on the Net, revising drafts of the child's homework, sitting in on classes, harrying teachers, writing to the school principal or organizing parent groups. Altogether, the book offers some 1,000 advices to anxious parents as to how to fill gaps in their days, and some 500 ways of detecting failures in their children's schools. The "minutes" add up to a massive investment: apparently not a single day can develop under its own logic or with much input from the child.
'The Educated Child' offers a plausible, if undocumented critique of America's educational problems; and plenty of improving ideas which will look reasonable so long as the parent does not move from the armchair to attempt to implement more than one or two of them. What is missing is any hard core of realism, and in particular any mention of IQ. By all means, the authors occasionally favour matching education to children's "abilities" so as to supply sufficient challenge and encouragement to all; and they correctly dismiss as hooey the unsubstantiated opinion of Harvard University's Howard Gardner that there are lots of different types of intelligence (a dogma allowing teachers to maintain a febrile optimism that every child is a genius at something). Yet school tracking is buried among endless tips for what worried parents should do around the house; and Bennett et al. cannot bring themselves to mention human psychology's best-known and most researched variable which alone might provide a fair and sensible way of assigning children to different school tracks.
Book Review: (Not so )Common Sense for teachers and parents!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book looks like a college textbook, but is so filled with practical, down to earth common sense that I simply couldn't put it down. I am a teacher and a parent, and am highly recommending it to every person I come in contact with. It outlines what each grade level's expectations should be, and how to spot good education, spotty education and poor education. This man is a breath of fresh air to the education world. I wish I could take all of this information and place it in each parent's head.One thing I particularly admire about Dr. Bennett's writing is that it is easy to read and reference. He speaks plainly and simply while making huge statements (ex. "There is right and wrong and it is our job to teach children to choose right"--what a concept lacking in our schools!)
Another thing I admire about this book is that it is not politically motivated. He does have some opinions in the last chapter of this book, but over all, he points out that we are to raise and teach moral, virtuous children that sometimes "make their brain sweat" while working out problems. (My daughter really likes to tell me her brain is sweating, so she must be doing a great job).
Another thing I admire about this book is that it is his feeling that if children were taught pride in themselves as Americans, we would see children turning away from drugs, because to support drug dealers is to support enemies of the United States.
If you have a child in your family or are a teacher or student teacher, I cannot rate this book high enough. If it were out in paperback I would personally purchase it for each of my parents in my class.
Book Review: One of the most important gifts you'll ever give your child!
Summary: 5 Stars
The knowledge you can gain from this 688 page volume can help your children get the kind of education that will be of value to them for the rest of their lives. It provides a how-to-do-it guide for getting your children successfully through the current U.S. educational system, properly prepared for high school and beyond. What greater gift can a parent offer ! You'll discover what a "well educated" child should know, what our responsibilities as parents are, and covers the major current issues in our education system. It not only covers academics, but also all of the other factors that can affect a child's ability to learn. Mr. Bennett even gives us a yardstick to judge the quality of education provided by any school. His purpose is to help parents get a good education for their children from early childhood through the 8th grade. I believe that he truly achieves that goal. He points out what we as parents should stand for in the school system and what we should not stand for. The author points out that the parent is the child's most important teacher, and the problems with delegating educational responsibilities to others. The parent must instill the highest ideals in their children, and a strong sense of responsibilty to really succeed in school and in life. He provides us with the rules for us to establish for our children, to help them gain the most from their schooling, and how to direct them so they know how to properly conduct themselves. Mr. Bennett emphasizes that elementary school has a far greater impact on our children, than higher education, and notes that "we ask elementary schools to help shape our students' first and lasting ideas about themselves, their country, and the world." He notes that "reading is the heart and soul of elementary education." He feels that educators today tend to emphasize that students need to "learn how to learn," and remain vague about what they should learn. The unruly atmosphere of our schools is addressed. He also covers the issues of teachers feeling that they work with very little help from parents. The basics of what makes good students and good schools is clearly spelled out for parents, and presents his "Ten Principles For Parents Of Educated Children." This books is a MUST READ, if you really want to help your children succeed, not just with lip service, but it provides all the facts you'll need, if you just expend a little effort. Wow !